Developing a model of CPD for a children’s integrated workforce

Dr Sharif Haider, Glynis Marsh, Amy Ward and Jenny Simpson, Knowledge Exchange Voucher

The KEV scheme has been launched to encourage our academics to establish relationships with organisations who they have had no previous interaction with.

The voucher pays for a certain number of days of OU academic or PhD student time; enough to help the organisation find an answer or explore the options to a particularly pressing question or challenge. Or it can be used to help you to undertake a small piece of research, conduct a literature review, or a study or analyse their existing data sets. Southampton City Council

Background

- There are a range of centrally driven agendas aimed at encouraging or requiring Local Authorities to organise services so that they place the needs of the child first, through the provision of early help, in a way which is more integrated across agencies (DfE, 2015; DfE/DH, 2015).

- There has also been a number of reviews seeking to articulate the skills, abilities and standards within the workforce, particularly registered social work practitioners (HCPC, 2011; TCSW, 2011; Narey, 2014; Croisdale-Appelby, 2014).

- At Southampton City Council the organisational shift has been initiated by the “Transformation Agenda” introduced in 2012.

- High turnover of staff Southampton City Council

Background

- 865 (total number of staff within Children’s Services) 177 (qualified social workers, of that 77 posts are filled) and 59 (non-registered social care staff)

- Qualified social workers and non-registered social care staff situated in a number of teams that include:

  - Multi-agency Safeguarding Hubs (MASH)
  - Early Help 5-19 Education
  - Protection and Court Team (PaCT)
  - Youth Offending
  - Looked After Children
  - Adoption
  - Fostering Research Aims

- To contribute to the knowledge and understanding of how Southampton City Council can respond to central government policy direction of development and delivery of social care services via an integrated children’s services model.

- To work in conjunction with Southampton City Council to develop a CPD model that begins with qualified social workers and non-registered social care staff and then broadens to the other members of the workforce within the Children’s Integrated Service. The purpose of the model being to map career pathways and their associated training and development.

- To develop a CPD model that will enable Southampton City Council to equip their staff to meet their statutory duties and enhance performance through its focus on development, staff support and retention. Research Question

What models of CPD would provide Southampton City Council with a framework to support and develop their workforce within this context? Journey to create CPD Models

Journey to Create CPD models

CPD models for Southampton City Council.

Learning Needs Assessments.

- Service users.
- Commissioners.
- Senior Managers.
- Staff Development Activity.

Social Care Workers.

- Core.
- Aspirational.

Objectives of CPD

Principles of CPD

Evaluation Findings (Young people)

“Social workers should have the skills and knowledge to listen to what young people say and understand their lives.”

Young people were in agreement with the skills and knowledge statements for social workers.

“Yeah, it helps to understand the person in general, and then you can know how to help and calm them down and stuff like that.”

“Social workers should understand why parents can’t care for their children and work with other professionals to help.”

“Social workers should be able to put together plans that work for children and young people and their family.”

“Social workers should have the skills and knowledge to understand why young people get angry, and they should know what to do.”

“People were posting anonymous comments and it was just abuse after abuse.”

“Them not being part of the plan, as in like not being involved like verbally.”

“Patronising, or they try and belittle you and they don’t understand, it just makes me even more angry.”

“Just give them the option and the choice to voice their opinion rather than immediately shutting them off.”

How new mobile technology impacts upon young people’s lives.

“I mean they’ve got a new app now that’s call Yik Yak and you can, it’s pretty much like Mean Girls.”

Social workers needed to have patience building relationships with young people. Findings (Adults)

Parent and carers were in agreement with the skills and knowledge statements for social workers.

"The decision that's being made could have a huge impact on the family life..."

"If you haven't got a good relationship then you can't build on it."

"Once you've got that bond between them it builds that trust and then it helps the family unit and the children."

"I think the most important ones, and I think everybody's identified, is relationships, communication, the abuse, neglect and the decision making."

"Yeah, because you think the manager makes a decision. The manager hasn't seen you, doesn't know you."

"Two-way communication is key to supporting parents and carers."

"Social workers return to their Team Managers for decisions."

"My daughter don't like none of them now because she thinks she can't, she tries to talk to one and then six months later he's moved so she's got another one."

"Social worker turnover is detrimental to the individual child's welfare and support."

"I have now recently just got after three years their social worker's mobile number, after three years of keep asking them."

"They come in absolutely enthusiastic about starting and within about six months they've, they've gone due to stress."

"Yeah, because you think the manager makes a decision. The manager hasn't seen you, doesn't know you."

"...my social worker's really good because if I can't get her on the phone I'll email her and she'll email me back and that's great."

"...it's always like they've got to go back to their boss..." Findings

Main barriers to access CPD

- High caseload
- Lack of funding
- Inadequate staffing level
- Lack of time
- Lack of flexible learning provision
- Irrelevant training A comparison of what is working and what workers wish in relation to their CPD.

| What is working | Wish list | Frequency of respondents | |----------------------------------|------------------------------------------------|--------------------------| | Questioning | Teams' away day | 35 | | Critical discussion of cases | Supervision | 31 | | Reflective learning | Attending workshop | 29 | | Supervision | Critical reflection | 29 | | Appraisal | Work shadowing | 26 | | Attended workshops | Peer supervision | 25 | | Attended Conferences | Mentoring | 24 | | Observing | Attending conferences | 24 | | Meetings | Appraisals | 23 | | Role modelling | Secondment | 21 | | Involved with project | Critical discussion of cases | 21 | | Induction | Learning for qualifications | 20 | | Analysing mistakes | Coaching | 19 | | Teams' study day | Observing | 19 | | Critical incident analysis | Involve in policy development | 19 | Devising the CPD Model

Principles informing the design of the CPD

• inclusive of knowledge, skills and values hopefully leading to a change in behaviour thereby making the model applicable across all professions and avoiding professional silos

• flexible and fluid in that it can take into account national policy developments, legislative changes, as well as local changes in the form of Serious Case Reviews or re-organisation;

• enables the creation of individual Learning Development Plans which then feed into a Team training plan and ultimately a pan-organisational Learning and Development Plan; Devising the CPD Model

Principles informing the design of the CPD

• the organisation’s existing supervision and appraisal processes would be used;

• builds on the commonalities in terms of knowledge, skills and values in relation to working with children and families;

• is a key component and a catalyst for creating a learning culture across the organisation Benefits of the model

- Flexibility and adaptability to local and national initiatives

- Creating a benchmark for Southampton City Council to measure the learning needs of its workforce and plan accordingly

- Building on an established framework of supervision and appraisal

- Enabling the commissioning of training and development to be much more targeted

- Amalgamating individual team members’ learning needs analysis thereby highlighting team priorities and challenges Benefits of the model

- Promoting the skills base of existing employees in relation to mentoring, shadowing and coaching

- Making use of information from across the organisation e.g. complaints, service user feedback, commissioning strategic plans and serious case reviews to inform the training and development programme for all staff

- Less prescribed and non-discriminating for those members of staff that do not have a professional qualification References

Braun, V. and Clarke, V. (2006) ‘Using thematic analysis in psychology’ Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3:2, 77-101

Children’s Development Workforce Council (2010) Common Core of Skills and Knowledge

Department of Education (2014) Skills and Knowledge Statement for Children and Families

Dreyfus, H.L. and Dreyfus, S.E. (1986) Mind Over Machine: The Power of Human Intuition and Expertise in the Era of the Computer

Greig, A.; Taylor, J. and Mackay, T. (2007) ‘Doing research with children’, Sage, London

Kitzinger, J. (1995) ‘Qualitative Research: Introducing focus groups’ British Medical Journal; 311: 299

Tuckett, A.G. (2005) ‘Applying thematic analysis theory to practice: A researcher’s experience’, Contemporary Nurse, 19:1-2, 75-87

© The Open University 2015